Rolasoul and the art of driving dance music…
Simon James and Adam Helal are the duo behind Rolasoul. Releasing music on labels including Plastic Fantastic and District, they write and produce from their studio at Tileyard in London.
Combining their individual influences and experience behind the decks, Rolasoul‘s productions blend groove, emotion and energy, creating music designed for both the dance floor and deeper listening.
Their partnership is built on a shared love of electronic music and a natural creative chemistry that has developed over years of working together.
With extensive touring experience and a growing catalogue of releases, Simon and Adam continue to develop the Rolasoul sound while staying focused on what matters most: making music they believe in.
On this Balance Selections mix, Rolasoul showcase exactly what they believe in: deep, dense progressive. Featuring tracks from Kasey Taylor & Stereo Underground, Fordal, Elliot Moriarty and more, this 90-minute journey is packed with energetic dance.
Tracklist
1. Deep Dish – Stay Gold (Framewerk Poolside Beatless Rewerk) {White Label}
2. Slam – Eterna (John Digweed & Nick Muir Reprise) {Bedrock}
3. Motorcycle – As The Rush Comes (Patch Park Bootleg) {Unreleased}
4. Elliot Moriarty – Take Me Home {Unreleased}
5. Cendryma – Dividing Part {Plastic Fantastic / Unreleased}
6. Max Wexham – Through Time {Plastic Fantastic}
7. Fordal – Cyber Lights (Zuccasam Remix) {Plastic Fantastic}
8. Kasey Taylor & Stereo Underground – Lose Your Mind {Vapour Recordings}
9. Zuccasam – All I Want {Plastic Fantastic / Unreleased}
10. Gowzer – Drift Line {Tradeston Records}
11. Deep Dish, Nicole Moudaber & Skunk Anansie – Love Someone Else {Factory 93}
12. Kasey Taylor – Kerfuffle {Vapour Recordings}
13. Danny In Space – Delta {Plastic Fantastic / Unreleased}
14. Max Wexham – Firewall {Plastic Fantastic}
15. Rolasoul – ID {Music To Die For / Unreleased}
16. UNKLE feat. Ian Brown – Fear (Framewerk Breaks Edit) {White Label}
17. FSOL – Papua New Guinea (AKO Breaks Remix) {White Label}
Name: Simon & Adam aka Rolasoul
Location: London
Alias/Producer name: Rolasoul
Labels affiliated with: Music to Die For, JINBU, District, Plastic, Nightcolours, Stripped, Friday Island, Ray of Light, Fall from Grace
(SJ) Growing up I was obsessed with New Order, Stone Roses, The Smiths, Joy Division, Depeche Mode and pretty much the whole Manchester scene.
(AH) Growing up I listened to John Peel who championed emerging bands and electronica. Blue Monday by New Order was seminal. Loved dub, King Tubby, Prince Far I for the nutty trippy FX they used and also innovative bands like Killing Joke and The Creatures.
(SJ) As soon as I heard New Order‘s album ‘Substance‘ I fell in love with the sound and the lyrics and they became a big part of my soundscape growing up.
(AH) As a very young kid I heard The Model by Kraftwerk on TOTP. I was like: Not heard anything like this before. I like it!
(SJ) My first clubbing experience was at the Hacienda and it blew my mind, everything about it was like I’d stepped into another world and I was hooked instantly. It changed my world.
Back to Basics and Hard Times became my mainstay after that.
(AH) Danny Rampling at Shoom was my first club baptism by fire followed by frequent forays to Heaven and Trade and the numerous warehouse parties which were out of this world back then.
The list is huge – but John Monkman is someone we admire greatly – his sound is so unique and he’s always pushing the envelope.
Underworld, Leftfield, New Order, The Chemicals, The Prodigy and Massive Attack amongst many many others.
We love producers who bring something sonically different to the table.
TOMORA – Come Closer
We use Pro-Tools as a DAW and use a mixture of analogue and digital plug ins to create our sound. Love the Prophet 6, Memory Moog, Roland TR8S and Jupiter X, as well as Serum and Native Instruments and Transfuser.
We use CDJ 3000‘s & an A9 Mixer as our DJ setup.
Our next release is on Music To Die For.
We are in the studio over the coming month and are currently finalising some new dates over the summer.
It took a couple of months of reaching out to our favourite DJ’s, Producers and Labels to get started.
We began curating the tracklist and arranging it to evolve naturally to ensure it was emotive and evocative right from the start, building in all the right places and transitioning with real story telling.
We then had a couple of tracks come in last minute. We made some adjustments to the tracklisting and tempo shifted up gradually to fine tune. We also made some fine adjustments to transition points to make everything move and flow better.
Tricky as it keeps changing …
One day it might be ‘Everything Everywhere‘ the next day it might be ‘Phoenix’. We are excited about our new release on Music To Die For.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – old as the hills but still gets me every time.
Curb Your Enthusiasm & Ozark
Sanya, China.
Pullman Oceanview Sanya Bay.
